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West Point military competition tests future soldiers, in photos

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) — Amid the Iran war, tensions with European allies in NATO and the Russia-Ukraine war, the United States Military Academy held its 59th Sandhurst Military Skills Competition. Across 36 hours, a mix of international and U.S. military cadet teams competed in a variety of skill-based competitions, based on the needs of the military. For the first time, cadets used video game controllers to simulate first-person view drone attacks, an exercise added due to the proliferation of drone warfare. The West Point black team won for the fourth year in a row.

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This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Ukraine’s drone strikes set a gloomy tone for Putin’s economic showcase

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A massive black cloud rising above the St. Petersburg skyline from a Ukrainian drone strike set a gloomy tone for the opening of President Vladimir Putin's annual showcase of Russia's economic achievements. With Putin set to arrive Thursday in his hometown that is hosting the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Ukrainian attack a day earlier that set an oil terminal ablaze was another embarrassing blow to his efforts to minimize the impact of the 4-year-old conflict and cast it as a distant event with no effect on Russian daily life. The attack, which also targeted a naval base near Russia's second-largest city on the Gulf of Finland, underlined Ukraine’s growing capability to hit deep inside its neighbor and demonstrated that even the heavily protected city where Putin was born is increasingly vulnerable. Scores of flights were delayed or diverted at St. Petersburg’s airport and authorities cut cellphone internet service to try to prevent drone attacks.
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